No, I'm not rooting for bad weather. I've seen quite enough flooding in the past nine years: Westbrookville and Deerpark, Livingston Manor and Cat Hollow. We've had devastation in Tuxedo and Washingtonville and Lake Katrine, in Pine Island and Frost Valley and sundry points in between.

Flooding and winter storms are the most common emergencies we face here in the mid-Hudson Valley and the lower Catskills, and they are things for which we can prepare.

September is Emergency Preparedness Month.

I don't know about you, but I'd like to be ready for the next Big One — especially considering that lately, we seem to have the next Big One every couple of years.

I'm not talking about turning into one of those Doomsday Prepper guys, although those guys look pretty prescient after you get a dozen inches of rain or 2 feet of snow over a couple of days.

I'm talking about basic planning and prep: keeping a stash of bottled water and nonperishable food for you and your pets on hand, good flashlights and a stock of batteries. I'm talking about having enough blankets available in case the heat goes out, a battery-powered or hand-cranked radio, and a few extra days worth of prescription medications. A first-aid kit, manual can opener, some tools, matches. Maybe a generator to power essentials, if you can swing it. What we're talking about here is being able to hunker down on your own for a few days while emergency and government services get the rest of your community up and going again.

If you want to be super-efficient about your planning, you can find guidance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's preparedness website (http://emergency.cdc.gov/preparedness/) or at FEMA's ready.gov website. They've got detailed information on how to plan for a variety of disasters — from snowstorms to chemical attack.

A point on that: The federal experts still recommend keeping plastic sheeting and duct tape among your supplies. I remember when that one came out, not long after the 9/11 attacks and, later, the anthrax attacks. The idea was, in case of a dirty bomb or chemical weapon, you could seal off a "safe room" in your home using the plastic and duct tape and shelter in place for a few hours until the worst was over.

Yeah, I have questions about the efficacy of that, too, but duct tape and plastic sheeting are useful for lots of things. Insert your favorite "Dexter" joke here. Seriously, though, you can use that stuff to cover broken windows or furniture you're storing or moving. Very handy.

Being prepared is a good idea in general, which is why "Be prepared" is the motto of both the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Am I 100 percent ready for the next cataclysmic storm? Not quite, but I'm going to work on that.